Beat's Dream Come True...

His coffee break over, Beats returned to his desk, and discovered that he had a new e-mail, the contents of which came as quite a surprise; it informed him that his requested holiday dates on Thursday and Friday of that week, and Monday of the next, had been confirmed. He sat down and reread the message, then tried to recall when he had applied for the holidays, as he had no recollection whatsoever of doing so. He decided to call the lady from the HR Department that had sent the e-mail and query it, explaining his dilemma. She had listened, and then laughed at his puzzled tone.

"Young man, I have been doing this particular job for over 30 years, and you are not the first person to have forgotten that they applied for leave; I very much doubt that you will be the last either. I did note when I received the request that you had three days outstanding from last year, and a memorandum was sent out requesting that you should apply for those dates by the end of 2026 in mid-December. Now, you know as well as I do that at that time of year, all of our heads are fried then!"

Beats laughed, and agreed that had to be it, and rang off. In her office, the lady smiled, amazed that he still had no idea what was going on. Still, it was fortunate that he had not come down in person or asked to see his application form, as then he would have seen clearly that his husband had been the one to apply on his behalf…

The remainder of that day went exactly to plan for Beats, and he headed for home on time, to discover that Elliott had used the remains of yesterday's roast chicken to make a pot pie. He told him how Matthew had agreed to let them all meet his young lady eventually, and that had made Elliott laugh, as he had recalled another moment from the weddings at the start of the month, and now knew that Madison had told Kitty that she was thinking of leaving Ohio and making a move to the city.

"It would seem that thought has now been turned into action by the coming into her life more fully of Matthew. I wonder when she will let Mason know that she is going to be coming here to live?" said Beats in response. "Now, as well as that, there was a rather strange moment today, when I received an e-mail telling me that I had been granted holidays that I cannot recall asking for. As a result, that means I will not be in work from Thursday through to Monday, giving me a very long weekend!"

Elliott said nothing for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. "My dear Nate, you are getting a tad forgetful. We talked about taking a weekend off together back in December; the two of us finding a cheap flight somewhere and going off for some fun. A honeymoon almost, given how quickly we married. Michelle has already granted me the weekend off, and Dante is coming to take care of Ty. If I didn't love you so much, I would be in a terrible huff with you right now…"

Beats looked at his husband, startled and even more puzzled as to why he had no recall of any of this; he felt all the worse about it because his beloved Elliott was referring to it as being a honeymoon… "It would be lovely to get away, just the two of us, and if everything is in place then I am definitely up for going away. Have you been looking for a possible destination?" he asked sheepishly.

"I have, fortunately. I might have found us quite a deal, but it isn't for a sandy beach somewhere, nor is it for a winter sports break. It is rather for what they now term an experience… Now, seeing as you don't even recall booking the time off, or even our discussion of the trip, that is all I am going to say, suffice to say that we will need to be at Newark no later than 9am on Thursday morning, and you should pack for weather that is similar to what we have here."

"I don't even get a tiny clue?" asked Beats.

"Nope. Now, I think we ought to go and check that we have the clothes ready for our time away, and any we need can be laundered and ready by Wednesday," replied Elliott.

Beats nodded, and headed to the bedroom to check through his clothes. As he did so, his mind was awhirl, wondering why he had no memory of any of it. He just hoped that it wasn't a sign that his brain was every bit as defective as his eyes…

Elliott had of course also informed their closest friends and neighbours that they were heading away for a long weekend. Drew and Ethan had agreed to keep a discreet eye on Dante and Ty, because even if the former was now an adult in the eyes of the law and through attending college, that did not necessarily imply that he was completely capable of running a home and looking after his young foster brother. Of course, Dante knew that Elliott would have spoken to the downstairs neighbours, and he had no issue with it, as a safety net was always a good thing.

Flint had been told that they were going away, and he was pleased for his best friend, as he had always felt that given the speed of their wedding, they had missed out on a honeymoon afterwards. Of course, he had probed Elliott more than the others to try and find out exactly where they were going, and found the fact that he had not been told frustrating to say the least. It grew more so when he spoke to Beats on Monday night, and his friend had confided all his worries in him; he had been very sympathetic when he had confessed that he felt his memory was going the same way as his eyes…

For that reason, he called Elliott at the Spotlight at lunchtime on Tuesday to let him know just how stressed out his husband was, and to plead with him to reconsider his decision not to tell Beats where they were going. "Not going to happen, Flint; however, I will make a point this evening of asking him some questions later about other things that happened in December that he will be able to recall in the hope of making him worry less. The last thing I want is for him to be stressed out. I'm sure that once we get to our destination he will forget all about this little bit of domestic drama anyway."

"Hmm, so is it a spa that you are going to? Somewhere that you can both just relax, forget about the day to day and just enjoy all of the treatments on offer?" queried Flint.

"It isn't a spa, nor is it a luxury hotel where we will be waited on hand and foot by a team of dedicated staff. Look, I'm not going to tell you exactly where we are heading, but let us just say that he will talk about it non-stop, ad nauseum, from the moment that we get back home."

Flint gasped then, as his mind suggested the one place that fitted that category for his friend, then laughed loudly as he dismissed it. "Knowing Beats as I do, the only possible destination that could get him going like that would be Japan, and that would be a very long way to go just for a weekend trip!"

"Yes, it is, isn't it…" replied Elliott, then excused himself and hung up. Flint was left sitting at his desk, wondering why he felt that those last short words from his friend's husband implied in his mind that Japan was exactly where they would be heading…

When he woke up early on Thursday morning, Beats was still in ignorance as to where he would be laying his head when he went to bed that evening. He had decided not to try and find out by searching for tickets in the house, as his husband obviously wished it to be a surprise and he had to try and respect that. He had seen Elliott place a wallet full of paperwork into the messenger bag that he took with him when they travelled, but even when his husband left it unattended he did not go and snoop. The only thing that he knew for certain was that they were leaving the United States as he had been told to ensure he packed his passport.

Nothing was mentioned over breakfast, which felt quite like the old days to him, as Dante had come home the night before, and was now sat yawning at the breakfast table as he ate the French Toast Elliott had made for him. Beats sat quietly and let his husband run through a long list of dos and don'ts for their son; he tried not to laugh as he watched though, as he could see that his doing so was leaving the young man slightly exasperated. Ty would join them just before it was time for them to leave and head for the PATH train which would start them on their journey to Newark. The journey was not direct by any means, but it was a more frequent service than could be had by heading up to Penn Station on the subway and then catching a NJT train over to Newark Airport station. They said their goodbyes and then headed out into the wintry morning for the short walk to the station on 9th Street…

After three changes of train they were finally on the Airtrain that would take them to where they needed to go, Terminal C; that information alone still gave Beats no clue as to where they could be heading. It was only once they were actually in the terminal building itself and standing in front of the line of check-in desks that he could grin, turn to face his husband and say, "Right, now you have to tell me where we are going, because each of those check-in desks are specific for a flight!"

"Do I?" asked Elliott, one eyebrow raised. "I don't have to at all; I could blindfold you and give you earplugs…"

"You could, but then you would have to deal with the attentions of security and probably the police as the check-in staff would find that awfully suspicious, and even more so when they take out those earplugs and remove the blindfold and I have to tell them I have no idea where we are going, my love…"

"Okay, you do make a valid point there. Right, our flight is scheduled to leave at 11:25am…"

Beats waited for Elliott to go on, and when he didn't, he shook his head in exasperation. He looked at the screens, and scanned down past flights to various parts of the country, then saw two scheduled departures for that time; one was for Des Moines, and the other was for…

He spun round, his mouth hanging open. "No, we can't be! I mean, I'm sure that there are lots of exciting things to see in Des Moines…"

"Me too, but you don't need a passport to go to Iowa," quipped a beaming Elliott.

Beats took in a breath, and then let out a squeal of sheer delight that echoed around the terminal, much to the shock and amusement of those standing around them…

"It's not the most luxurious of places we will be staying in I'm afraid; the spare bedroom of the little apartment that Josh and Scott have, and we won't be able to see everything you might wish to in the course of a weekend…" began Elliott.

"We could be staying in one of those capsule hotels for one night and coming home, and it would not matter to me. We are going to Japan, and that is a dream come true for me. You, Elliott Harper-Gilbert, are the best husband in the history of the world!"

"Well, I know that, and I'm pretty excited to be going to Japan too; on top of making you so happy, I get to see my little brother…"

Elliott did not get to finish his sentence as he suddenly found himself wrapped in his husband's arms and being smothered with kisses. However, just as fast as that had begun, it ceased. "Right, come on, we should be getting checked-in! I want to get through to the departure lounge and see how long the flight is, so that I can work out how much sleep we need to get to make the most of our first day in Japan…"

With the check-in process over and the security line passed, Beats made a call to his parents to let them know where he would be spending his weekend. They had known that Elliott was taking him away, but they were surprised to discover that it was to the other side of the world, his mother observing that it was a very long way to go for such a short time…

"It is," Beats replied, "but we will get to see Josh and Scott whilst we are there too, and as we are staying with them, we are only paying out airfare, food and travel there. The biggest thing of all will be the fact that we are crossing the Date Line; even though it is just over a twelve hour flight, we will be arriving in Japan on Friday afternoon, which is one reason why I will be trying to get as much sleep as possible on the plane. Of course, it is even more peculiar on the way home; we will leave on Monday morning at 11am, and arrive back on Monday morning at 10.55am…"

His mother laughed at the tone of his voice as he said that, then said, "Well, stay safe and enjoy yourselves." She smiled as she realised that he sounded like a little kid that was on the way to Disneyland for the first time, and in many ways, he was going to his dream destination…

He had no time to call anyone else, as he had to find a store that stocked mild sleeping pills. He had used them when he and Flint had travelled to Antarctica back in college, along with a sleeping mask and earplugs, and had managed to sleep for most of their flight down to Santiago in Chile. Instead of making more calls, he posted on Facebook instead, putting up a photo of himself and Elliott standing beside the monitor that showed their flight number and destination, captioning it with the words, 'When you marry the most handsome, loving and tolerant man in the world, and for a belated honeymoon he takes you to visit his brother in the country that you have dreamed of visiting all your life, you know that you married the right man!' He had to switch his phone off almost the moment he finished as they were called to board, but when he was able to switch it back on again after they were airborne, he had so many likes and happy comments that he felt he was one the top of the world…

Flint saw his best friend's message as he left an early morning meeting and grinned. It was good when someone's dreams came true and if anyone deserved it, it was Beats. He knew first hand just how much his friend had given up when his sister had ended up divorced and in massive debt, leaving his college days less carefree and more stressful than they might have been when he had to give up his college fund to assist her. He had not complained about it though, nor had he reacted angrily when he was told that because he was such a key member of the group as their beatboxer that his travel to every Warbler gathering was being covered by his friends…

Flint alone knew that in order to fund his way through college, his friend had been forced to part company with a lot of his most treasured possessions. He had sold the majority of his collection of Japanese comics and toys to fund himself on the trip to Antarctica with the rest of their college class, as he just failed to qualify for assistance from the school. He had not offered to help him out directly, as he knew that would be too much, but he had done something more covert instead. He had seen the agony that it caused his friend to sell two items in particular, the most prized of the lot, and so he had asked another student that he shared a class with that did not know Beats to purchase them on his behalf…

He knew that Beats would not have allowed him to purchase them directly, and he also knew that if he handed them back immediately, then he would be angry, and probably sell them again just to spite his friend. So he had placed the items in storage and there they remained all the time that they were at the southern extremes of the globe. They had remained there longer than he originally intended, staying there through Hunter's trial, Niff's wedding and of course, the aftermath of Wes' death. Then Beats had headed back to Zanesville for Christmas and on unpacking his bag in his old room, he had found two parcels he knew nothing about…

Flint had been expecting the call early on the morning of that Christmas Day and when it came it consisted of two parts. The first, the How? part, he had answered with a lie, saying that he had seen a notice on a college bulletin board and discovered that the student that had bought them was now selling them again, and he had known at once what he had to do; to this day, he had not told his friend the real truth, as he had never questioned what he had said. The second part of the call was the tearful one, as Beats told him how he could never repay him, and just how grateful he was. Flint had responded that it was nothing. He had bitten his tongue though, as he had just found out about his friend's secret life as a gay bar stripper, and he was pretty mad with him deep down…

Flint knew where those two items were now as well; proudly out on display in the bedroom that his friend shared with Elliott. Now as his friend headed to the land of his boyhood dreams, he hoped that he might be able to add to his collection of Japanese memorabilia once more, and might even be able to acquire some of the things he had given up back then. That would be all the more fitting given that his sister had never even thanked him for all that he had given up to bail her out of a bad situation…


From the moment that their flight touched down in Tokyo, Beats was like a kid in a candy store. Even in the terminal building his eyes and ears were assailed by all of the things he had read about and seen on film and television for decades. Everything was so clean and orderly, and all the people were respectful and well-mannered. Bright electronic adverts shone from the walls, showing images of all of the latest gadgets and pictures of all of the things that a visitor to the city should see. The staff at the immigration desks had bowed to them as they arrived, and Beats had bowed back in respect…

With that process swiftly passed through, they headed on into the baggage reclaim area, passing more adverts and avoiding the robot cleaners as they swept and mopped the floor continually. Their bags were already on the carousel when they got there, an example of the legendary Japanese efficiency that was known around the globe. Their bags collected, Elliott hurried after his husband who was desperate to get out into the city…

Josh was waiting for them just outside the baggage claim area, and Beats paused for a moment to let the two brothers hug, then allowed Josh to hug him too. That done, the younger of the two Gilbert brothers said, "Okay, so we need to head this way to catch the train back to our temporary home; if we hurry, we might just catch the next non-stop train into the central station, where we can catch the connection we need. It isn't quite the Shinkansen, or Bullet Train as you would know it, but it does do a fairly good speed…"

Given the haste that Beats was in, they made the train in good time, and soon were heading along at 160mph towards the centre of Tokyo; Beats had his eyes glued to the world outside as they flew along the tracks, and was unaware of the world around him as a result. Elliott tried to speak to him twice, then shook his head and smiled. Josh smiled too, wondering how Beats would be when they reached the huge central station and were surrounded by so much hustle and bustle; he had visions of needing to put him on a luggage trolley to keep him moving so they could catch the train that would take them to the suburban area in which he and Scott were staying.

That train journey was just the start of a weekend that allowed Beats to experience so many of the things he had read about and dreamed about since he was a teenager. He was able to witness all of the aspects of the culture of the nation, from visiting a Shinto shrine, a museum dedicated to the Samurai warriors, and then having tea served to him by Geisha girls. He saw Mount Fuji, and travelled on the actual Shinkansen, marvelling at the speed, the frequency and the almost religious devotion to having the trains run on time, with a timetable that was down to the second. He met a cat stationmaster, who regarded him with curiosity as he insisted on taking a selfie. He tried every possible food he could, and all of the flavours that were unique to the local market, although some of the soda varieties reminded him of that infamous Warbler party in Port Jefferson the year that he had graduated from college…

He cheered enthusiastically at a Sumo wrestling competition, as Elliott sat at his side watching in a mix of amusement and mild distaste as the large athletes clad in nothing more than their mawashi – it resembled a diaper in his opinion – slapped themselves then grappled with each other in the ring. Elliott was reminded of the fights he had witnessed as a teenager back home in New Jersey, only there the opponents wore much more.

As for souvenirs, Elliott had anticipated his husband's desires and had secured for them a large baggage allowance for the flight home, and had even gone so far as to ask Josh to purchase an extra case for them. A visit to a flea market on Sunday had been the mains source of the items; Elliott had seen his husband's face literally light up on seeing a stall filled with sets of old manga comics. On closer inspection, two of the sets were of comics he had sold to fund his college education and best of all, every one of the comic sets was in English; that was akin to a miracle in a Japanese market. He asked the price, and kept a poker face when the sum quoted was much lower than he anticipated; he found out later that the stallholder was retiring and that he was clearing stock on his final day. In the end, six full sets of comics found their way into their luggage.

Flint woke up on Sunday morning in New York to see photos of all of the comics on his friend's Facebook feed, and he smiled as he recognised the two sets that he had seen all those years ago in their shared freshman dorm at Princeton. Of course, those pictures were just the latest in a string of hundreds that Beats had posted since he had arrived in Japan; indeed, the volume was so great that some of his friends had jokingly accused him of trying to take up every bit of space on the Cloud. What Flint saw in every image though was just how happy his best friend was, his face aglow with sheer delight…

He had also laughed at the comments that Elliott had added to those photos and on his own Facebook feed; he stated point blank that they would not be getting a bed down on the floor, nor would he be replacing their current dining table with one down at the same level. As he pointed out, walking into the dining table accidentally was painful; tripping over it and ending up sprawled on the top of it would be a nightmare. It took him a moment to appreciate the subtext behind those statements, namely that Beats' eyesight was going to deteriorate, and such low items of furniture would be an immense hazard to him…

Izzy had of course looked through all the pictures with her husband, and had laughed at the video he had posted of the Sumo competition, until the moment that one of the men fell out of the ring and landed on one of the audience in the front row, sending them flying… As she stared at the scene in open-mouthed horror, Flint quipped, "According to Beats, those ringside seats are the most prized and hence most expensive at the competition…"

Izzy stared at him, then shook her head. "Frankly, I would rather sit at the back where the risk of being squashed by a large man in a loincloth is much lower," she said, not adding that the sight of them all slapping their stomachs and making those clapping sounds as a result would have her laughing hysterically.

"It's not something that I would even want to go to, but Beats loves his Japanese culture. If he had not lost all of his college fund to his sister, then he was intending to go between his Junior and Senior years, and he did hint that he wanted me to travel with him…"

"And you would have gone with him, because that is what best friend's do," his wife said with a smile.

"Yeah, but I would also have been carrying a list of synagogues from my mom…" he replied, and Izzy smiled, knowing that was probably true…

That was the moment that the landline phone began to ring. "Oh Lord, we have summoned your mother!" Izzy gasped, which made Flint shake his head at her, but smile at the same time. He went over to pick up the landline, which they only really had because his mother refused to call cellphones when she knew that the person she wished to speak to would be at home, and braced himself for a full on onslaught of maternal commentary…

Izzy watched him, and saw the expression on his face shift subtly, but he did not speak, just listened, which was not unusual when dealing with his mother. However, then he asked, "When did it happen?" and he said it in such a sad tone that her interest was immediately piqued. "Yes, obviously you can't tell him now, but he does need to be told as soon as is practicable. I can take some time out of the office and go to Newark to meet him, let him know as soon as he is back in the country. I am so sorry that this has happened, and I know that he will be too…"

Izzy sat in silence as her husband ended the call, and then walked slowly back across the room to sit down at the table alongside her. She waited for a moment, as her husband took a breath, and ran his hand through his hair. "That was Mrs Harper; Beats always insisted that she had to have our landline number for emergencies."

"I overheard a lot of what you said, and the look on your face – would I be right in thinking that there has been a death? Oh Lord, it's not his dad, is it?" asked Izzy.

"No, Mr Harper is alive and as well as can be expected in the circumstances, taking care of his three grandchildren that no longer have a mother…"

"Beats' sister is dead! I know that there was no love lost between them over the way she behaved, but still… How did it happen?"

"She was out with her latest partner and they were involved in a car crash. From what I can gather, the two of them were drunk, and when the accident occurred, he was being pursued by the Sheriff's department at high speed. The car rolled on a corner and she was flung out through the windshield; she was pronounced dead at the scene. He lived, and will be facing a number of charges…"

"What a mess! I guess this means that Mr and Mrs Harper will have to raise the grandchildren, given that their father is no longer on the scene?"

"They will, of course, but they are not as young as they used to be, and raising three kids on their own will be tough…"

Izzy nodded, knowing that her own parents found entertaining their grandchildren exhausting and they were still fairly young and undemanding; it would be harder for the Harpers to deal with teenagers, which was the age that Beats' eldest niece and his nephew were at. Add in another niece that was now twelve, and all of the complications of grief over the death of their mother, and two grandparents that were now in their mid-sixties would be exhausted. "I agree that they might struggle, but they will also know that caring for those children is their duty, and theirs alone."

"Yes, if there isn't a feasible alternative, and that might be an uncle and his husband, two people that those kids are pretty fond of," said Flint thoughtfully. "One thing I do know for certain is that he would never stand back and allow them to be taken into care…"

"I know, but how could he and Elliott possibly manage to take care of three more children? It would mean that one of them would have to give up work, and where would they all sleep in their place anyways?"

"There might not be space here in New York, but if he had to, Beats would drop everything and go back to Ohio to support his parents, and that much I know to be a fact. He would feel that it was his duty and responsibility to intervene if his parents were stuck. The problem there is that there is no way that Elliott would ever agree to leave Manhattan for Zanesville."

"It would not come to that, surely," asked Izzy, although in her heart she knew that it could well end up being the case. "There has to be another way…"

"I really hope so, because I would inevitably end up having to take a side in it all, and the person I would support would not be Beats; his marriage should come first and if his parents were struggling, then they should start by tracking down the kids' father. He left because of how she was behaving, but he punished them by doing so, and he has neglected his paternal responsibilities for too long now. In fact, I think that the Harpers should be looking for him right now, because he has duties as a parent to fulfil."

Izzy smiled at how fired up her husband was, even if she was a little shocked that he would be prepared to take Elliott's side if a marital breakdown was on the cards. However, she also knew that there was more to his anger than simply wanting to protect that happy union; he also did not want to lose his best friend…